The lads put down their shovels with a sigh of relief.
"Is there such a thing as a bath room that we can use?" questioned Rush.
"What? Do you fellows ever wash?" demanded the stoker who had had the words with Steve earlier in the day.
"That depends upon the company we have been in," answered the lad sharply. "Did you tell me about the bath room, sir?"
The foreman could not repress a grin. He pointed up the companion ladder.
"You will find one on the deck above this. First door to the right."
"Thank you, sir."
Steve began climbing up the ladder, followed by Bob and, a few rungs behind, by the surly stoker who had sought to have fun with the Iron Boys and had got the worst of the argument in each case.
Their first trick on board an ore carrier had been gotten through successfully, but it was about the hardest six hours the lads remembered ever having put in. They hurried out into the air before taking a bath. Never had fresh air smelled so sweet as it did that day. The lads were black, the coating of soot on their faces being streaked with perspiration, and their clothes could have been no wetter had they just come up from the sea.